Golden Rule, nah, Golden 3 weeks, question/advice

First post, I, like others read this great forum and try to absorb as much as posible. I recently purchased a 40D, what a camera. I am sure I will take advantage of 30% of it's features.

Ok, I could use some ideas/advice. I am going to China and expect to take a lot of pictures. Yes I know most of you that photographers, but I realize I am pretty much a picture taker. We will be traveling to new places all the time, hence at most places I will not be shooting only during dawn or dust. So I am looking for tips on how to shoot during mid day (any time for that matter).
So let let me throw out examples of what I am looking for, although they may not be valid...
1) if shooting 90 degrees to the sun, use a polarized filter.
2) because of the harshness of the sun, bracket shoots and "merge" them if needed.
3) Since I am a picture taker, just point and shoot

Thank you,
dave...

If you're going to be doing a lot of daytime shooting, use the Sunny 16 rule. Basically, on a sunny day, in the sun, at f/16, your shutter speed will be the reciprocal of your ISO. So you'd use ISO 100 with 1/100th, ISO 200 with 1/200th, etc.

Then from there you can adjust for different f-stops, doubling shutter speed for each stop wider than 16 you go. And after that you can start adjusting for overcast lighting. With enough familiarity you should start to be able to "just point and shoot" with the correct exposure dialed in, which should be a great start with feeling more comfortable with taking advantage of the flexibility of the camera.